The Challenges of Promoting Reading Culture in Nigerian Children through Story Hour, Book Talks and Exhibition: A Case Study of selected Secondary Schools in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.

It has been observed that reading culture among Nigerian children is tragically deficient when compared to the Western world. In this era of high level technological development, it is disheartening to note that reading culture is missing as the younger ones are now embracing watching of home video and accessing the Internet. The paper focused on the challenges of promoting reading culture in Nigerian children through study hour, book talks and exhibition. The study was carried out in some secondary schools in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Ten (10) secondary schools were used and the findings reveals the challenges militating against effective promotion of reading culture in the Nigerian child to include the followings: The Internet trend, lack of academic competitions and schools, non-integration of story-telling in school curriculum, high costs of children’s literature among others. Based on the foregoing, adequate recommendations that would promote reading culture in the Nigerian were made. The outcome of the study revealed that promoting reading culture in contemporary Nigerian society with respect to children using book talks, story hour and exhibition has a lot of challenges. The stand point of the paper is that effort should be made by librarians to bring back the reading culture as this will help to develop our nation Nigeria